A New Life Path
by Lady Sabine of Macayhill
Summary: A look at what Severus Snape's life might have turned out if his mother had divorced his father when he got his Hogwarts letter. Set in the same universe as my fic Saved from Darkness.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: I have been wondering what Severus Snape's life might have turned out if his parents had divorced by the time he started Hogwarts and he was then raised by only his mother. Since the idea would not leave me, I have decided to write a fic on it, but it will be set in the same universe as my fics _A Different Future_ and _Saved from Darkness_.

Eileen Snape returned home from her job as a potions brewer at Petrov's Potions, carrying a wrapped plate of sandwiches left over from lunch and three-quarters of her week's salary (changed into pounds) in her pocket. She sighed, knowing that her husband would end up spending it at the pub, which was where he spent much of his time since he had lost his job at the mill six years previous. If it weren't for the fact that her employer, Ilsa Petrov, provided lunch for her two employees and insisted on their taking the leftovers home, Eileen probably would not have been able to make sure that her son, Severus, didn't have to go to bed hungry. As for the one-quarter of her salary she did not bring home for her husband to waste on drink, she used to pay the utility bills and buy clothes and other needed items with some saved to pay for school supplies once Severus started Hogwarts.

Eileen had no sooner entered the kitchen when she dropped the plate and gasped in shock. She immediately rushed over to where the curled-up body of her son, Severus, lay next to the stove. Her lips tightened when she saw the black eye and bruise on his cheek, and no doubt he had other injuries hidden underneath his clothes. His eyes were shut in a grimace of pain. Several torn pieces of parchment lay scattered next to him, one of which had the Hogwarts crest on it, providing a further clue as to what had occurred.

She was about to get her wand to cast a healing spell when loud and heavy footsteps sounded behind her. She turned to see her husband, Tobias, walk in the room, smelling of alcohol and with bloodshot eyes. "What did you do to Severus?" she demanded icily, though she strongly suspected that the arrival of Severus's Hogwarts letter had something to do with setting him off.

"Just taught him a lesson," snapped Tobias Snape. "I'm not having a freak son going off to a freak school to learn nonsense. He's going to a normal school. And he had the nerve to talk back to me!"

"And if he doesn't go to Hogwarts and learn to master his magic, then it'll just start breaking out and cause even more trouble!" retorted Eileen. "He's going whether you like it or not, Tobias!"

"What good do these freaky powers do us? You couldn't use it to get my job at the mill back, much less let us live like swells."

At that point, Eileen snapped. She had put up with her husband and his drinking problem for the past six years, hoping that he would change and go back to being the loving man he was when they first married. She had also done her best to protect their son from his rages, which mainly why Severus hadn't suffered anything worse than some slaps and punches until now. Tonight, however, it was abundantly clear to her that Tobias would never change, and her heart almost broke at the knowledge that she hadn't been around to protect her son today, so that he had suffered greatly.

"If you don't like the fact that I'm a witch and Severus is a wizard, then why did you marry me in the first place? I told you that I was one after we got engaged and you had no problem with it. You are an idiot, Tobias Snape, and it's clear that you will always be a drunkard and will never change. Severus and I are leaving you and we never want to see you again."

Tobias raised a hand and struck her hard, on the cheek. Before she could react to this, he then kicked Severus, who let out a moan. Tobias drew his foot back for another kick, but Eileen grabbed the frying pan sitting on the stove and hit him in the head with it, knocking him out. She then cast a temporary healing spell on her son, which would last until he got proper medical treatment, helped him get up, and Side-Along Apparated him out of the house on Spinner's End and to the front door of Petrov's Potions.

* * *

"Eileen!" exclaimed Ilsa Petrov in surprise when she opened the door. "And Severus! What are you- oh dear, what happened?" Without waiting for an answer, she quickly moved to one side to let Eileen and Severus inside and then shut the door. "How did you get that black eye and bruise, Severus? Never mind, I can guess. Eileen, I take it that you have finally decided to leave your husband?"

Eileen nodded. "Today was the last straw. Severus got his Hogwarts letter today, and Tobias reacted badly to it. If only I had been around to protect him."

"You didn't know something would happen to Severus, Eileen. Well, the guest room is the second door on the right. I'll go get some healing potions, and you can ask Lise to see what healing he needs. She's in the dining room across the hall."

Eileen led Severus up to the first floor (1) and into the guest room, which was papered in blue and silver and the bed had a matching blue coverlet. "Mum, you're really leaving Dad?" he asked quietly once they were alone.

"Yes, Sev," she answered. "I should have done it years ago, but I foolishly thought he would change and be the way he was when we were first married. I'm sorry that you had to suffer under him, and that I wasn't around to protect you from him today."

"Mum, you have to work," pointed out Severus. "Otherwise we'd have been out in the street. So it's all right. All that matters now is that you left him."

Eileen gave him a tiny smile and then went across the hall to get Lise Romanov, who immediately grabbed her healer's bag and wand and rushed into the guest room. The first thing she did was cast on diagnostic spell on Severus. Her eyes flashed when she saw the results. She cast a more permanent healing spell and at that point, Mrs. Petrov came in, a few bottles and small jars in her apron pocket. After a quick and hushed conversation with Mrs. Romanov, she took a jar of bruise balm and gently smeared some on the black eye and bruise. She then gave him a dose of Pain-Reducing potion.

Mrs. Romanov conjured a basin of water and summoned a towel from the bathroom, which she set on the dresser. Mrs. Petrov handed Eileen a jar of medicated salve and whispered something that Severus didn't catch. The former then turned to Severus and said, "Your mother will tend to the rest of your... injuries, since I don't think you want somone you barely know to do it, Severus. I'll bring the two of you some dinner in a few minutes, and we can discuss your future plans, Eileen. If you don't mind taking a small reduction in your salary, you and your son are prefectly free to live here."

"Thank you, Ilsa," said Eileen gratefully. When the two other women had left the room, she turned to her son and began tending him, fighting back tears when she saw the welts on his back and silently cursing her soon-to-be-ex-husband. When she was done, Mrs. Romanov returned with a tray of food for the both of them and Mrs. Petrov had a small stack of clothes in her arms.

"Here you are, Severus," the latter said, handing him a set of forest green pyjamas and navy blue robes. "My son Nikolas outgrew these." The rest of the clothes, consisting of a nightgown and another set of robes she gave to Eileen. While Severus had dinner, Eileen and Mrs. Petrov had a discussion in the kitchen. When it ended, the result was that Eileen and Severus would live with the Petrovs, in a small suite of rooms on the second floor, with meals included, and her salary of twenty-five Galleons a week was reduced to fifteen. After that, the two went upstairs to the top floor and got settled in two bedrooms with a connecting bathroom between them.

(1) I am using the European labeling of floors. The first floor is the ground floor in Europe, the second floor becomes the first floor, and so on.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Eileen returned to Spinner's End to pack up Severus's and her belongings. She also informed Tobias Snape that she had filed for divorce and in return for his not contesting it, she would not have him arrested for abuse or ask for alimony and child support. Since he had no desire to go to jail and or part with any money (not that he had any), he agreed. She then went to the Evanses home, where she explained to them what had happened and made arrangements for them to go Diagon Alley tomorrow, which was Monday, so Lily could get her school supplies with Severus.

At the apothecary, Severus spent the morning getting to know the Petrovs' three children, Maria, Anastasia, and Nikolas. Maria was the oldest at fourteen, a Hufflepuff, enjoyed reading, and wanted to be an Auror someday. Ana and Niko were twins, aged thirteen, with former in Gryffindor and the latter in Slytherin. Ana had a passion for Potions like her mother, planned to get her Potions Mastery one day, and would no doubt inherit the apothecary one day. Niko was still deciding what he wanted to do in life, though he was considering becoming a Healer.

Living with the Petrovs was Sarah Horowitz, Ana's best friend and a Muggleborn. She had been disowned by her parents for being a witch and insisting on attending Hogwarts. The only member of her family that hadn't disapproved had been her grandmother, who had passed away three months ago and had turned over guardianship of her granddaughter to the Petrovs.

In the afternoon Severus properly met the Romanovs, who were close friends of the Petrovs. Mrs. Romanov was a Healer and worked the night shift at St. Mungo's, while Mr. Romanov worked as an interpreter at the Department of International Magical Cooperation in the Ministry. They had two children, Tobias, or Toby for short, who was the same age as Maria and also wanted to be Auror, and Stephan, who was the same age as Ana and Niko and best friends with the latter. Toby was in Hufflepuff, while Stephan was in Ravenclaw. Severus was rather nervous at first when meeting the former, as he had the same name as his father, but relaxed upon being told to call him Toby and seeing that he was friendly and nice.

The two families were _Roma_, or Gypsies as many outsiders called them, though Maria explained that the latter term was neither accurate or one they cared for. Medieval Europeans had mistakenly thought that the _Roma_ came from Egypt, resulting in the name 'Gypsy', when in reality they had emigrated from India. In the beginning, only some of them were witches and wizards, but after centuries of intermarriage, just about all _Roma_ were magical except for the ones that were Squibs. _Gajos_, or those that weren't _Romany_, both Muggle and magical, looked down on them, though the prejudice against the _Roma_ was in the past and for the most part had died down in the present. Of course, there were Muggles that still didn't like Gypsies, and in the wizarding world, there were some purebloods that continued to look down on them since they were technically halfbloods.

"That's stupid," said Severus when Maria was done explaining. "I can understand why some purebloods would look down on the _Roma_, but why would Muggles do the same?"

"Well, for one thing, we were always traveling," replied Ana. "Well, most of us don't do so any more, but we did in the past. Of course, the laws at the time didn't really allow us to settle permanently in one place, but did they care? And then we had to use our wits in any way possible in order to make a living, which included telling fortunes and training animals for shows. There was also the reputation we had for being tricksters and thieves, but can you blame us if the laws prevented us from finding regular employment so that we had to turn to theft in order to feed our families? It's not like you can conjure money and food without having it be nothing more than illusion, and increasing what you already have only works so far."

That was quite true, for conjured gold was exactly like leprechaun gold, disappearing in a few hours, and conjured food did exactly the same without providing any form of nourishment. As for multiplying what food you did have, the extra food was not as nourishing or effective, and the same applied to other things. For example, you could increase the amount of a Fever Reducer, but the extra would not work as well, and in order to be as effective as the brewed potion, you would have to take a higher dosage.

Dinner that evening was at the Romanov home, for the two families had that meal together, alternating between their homes. Severus helped set the table, and at the end of the meal, put the dishes away with Niko after Maria and Stephen finished washing and drying them.

The next day, Eileen had the morning off from work in order to take Severus and the Evanses for school supplies. Severus took out his letter and booklist, which his mother had magically mended, and looked through it. Lily looked very excited about everything, her parents were a bit awed, and her sister Petunia looked somewhere between jealousy and disapproval.

The first stop was at Gringotts, where Mr. and Mrs. Evans exchanged their pounds and Eileen went down to her vault to withdraw her savings. After that, they went to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions for the school uniform. That was followed with a trip to Flourish and Blotts, where Lily got some extra books for background reading in addition to to the necessary textbooks and Severus got all his books secondhand in order to save his mother money. Rather than go to the other apothecary in Diagon Alley, which only sold potion ingredients, they went to Petrovs Potions, where Mrs. Petrov gave Severus and Lily their potions supplies for half-price and introduced her family (except for husband, who was at work, and Niko, who was visiting Stephen) to the Evanses.

Ana and Maria were perfectly willing to answer any questions that Lily had about Hogwarts, and before the group left, the younger girl was given permission to spend the rest of the week with Severus. Lily looked postively delighted at this.

After buying cauldrons, parchment, quills, and ink, the group went to Ollivander's Wand Shop. After trying several wands, Lily got one made of willow, ten and a half inches, with unicorn hair core. It was rather swishy, and according to Mr. Ollivander, good for charms. Severus got one made of rowan, twelve inches, with a core of dragon heartstring. The group then went to Magical Menagerie, where Lily bought an adorable white kitten with gold spots that she named Snowbell. As Mrs. Petrov had insisted on giving Severus some money to spend on a gift for himself, he bought a tawny owl that he named Lance, and told Lily that she could borrow Lance whenever she needed to send a letter or package to her family.

They had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, and then the Evanses went home while Lily followed Severus and his mother to Petrov's Potions. She was installed in the guest room and then spent the afternoon with Severus, looking through their school books and learning about the different subjects and teachers at Hogwarts from Sarah, Maria, and Ana.


End file.
